“Battlefront” will focus on frenzied shoot-outs between up to 40 players portraying Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire forces. In a demonstration of the game’s multiplayer mode, a team of jetpack-equipped rebels were shown carving their way through the woodsy Endor while Stormtroopers charged at them on foot, on speeders and within walkers, including a hulking AT-AT war machine.

The AP also revealed details on the locations we will be playing in. Hoth and Tatooine are in. Sullust, a lava-spewing planet briefly mentioned in Return of the Jedi will also be a battleground.

Oh, and are you ready to play as Darth Vader?!

“You can storm in as the Dark Lord himself,” design director Niklas Fegraeus told the AP. “You can wield a lightsaber. You can Force choke the rebel scum, which is fun. Basically, you are the boss of the battle. This means that you, as Vader, can lead your team to victory — if you play well.

Once the AP published their report, other websites quickly followed.

How about some incredible Battlefront images? Here you go.

The lighting is pretty damn impressive in these images.

Third-person perspective is in. Awesome. Game Informer writes, “At this point, the player controlling the soldier changes the viewpoint from first-person to third, something players can freely do at any time during gameplay.”

A deal breaker for some, but DICE campaigns have never impressed me. I say focus on what you’re good at (multiplayer).

Let’s go over some of the big features we know about now.

40 players. Interesting that DICE/EA opted to go for a lower player count. That probably helps explain why the images above look so damn good. 64 would be better, but 40 will do. It all boils down to map design. 40 players can feel just as hectic as 64 provided the maps are designed well.

Space battles. No space battles sucks, but dogfights with X-wings, TIE fighters and the Millennium Falcon are in. I’m sure EA is cooking up space battles for a future DLC pack.

Free DLC. I didn’t mention this above, but Battlefront is getting some free DLC in early December – the Battle of Jakku. Remember the Star Destroyer crashed on the desert planet in the teaser yesterday? DICE’s Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir tells Game Informer, “you find out” what happened to it with this DLC.

No campaign. DICE/EA is forgoing a traditional campaign in favor of cooperative missions. This might turn off some, but name a recent campaign from DICE that was good. Exactly.

More websites will be publishing their first looks today. I’ll update this post with more info as I see it. We will all get our first look at Battlefront in a trailer later today.